Ranma no Kagakusha
by kuro-oni5
Summary: Original story, no crossovers. Ranma meets someone who specialises in techniques. Fifth chapter finally up.
1. He arrives

Ranma no Kagakusha.

Ranma one half does not belong to me.

This Introduction is dedicated to all the good writers who have discontinued my favorite fanfics, and Kuno-Baby, for being the only person with enough balls to seriously flame me on my first fic, which truly did suck.

This is set after jusendo, during the summer break.

(S) This is a scene change. 

A rather portly, middle aged, Caucasian man was walking down the streets of Nerima, whose very existence seemed to be challenging Genma Saotome's reign as fattest non sumo in the ward. He ignored the stares of the locals in favor of closing his eyes while he walked, although they didn't stare long. At first they thought he was a tourist, very uncommon in Nerima, they soon saw he was vaguely heading in the direction of the Tendo Dojo, which explained everything to the curious Nerimites.

Nabiki Tendo was tracking this man ever since he entered the ward, she had long ago learned to cover all of her bases when dealing with Ranma's "visitors" and Ranma attracted all kinds of trouble, which usually meant keeping a tight watch on everything coming to and going from the ward's limits.

Currently the stranger had stopped at a small sushi yatai and ordered the largest item on the menu, to go. When Nabiki crept past the booth the man working there addressed her.

"Excuse me, Miss Tendo?" the sushi chef asked politely.

She jumped slightly at that, but quickly regained her composure. "Yes?" she asked haltingly.

"The man you are stalking asks that you stop, and told me to give you this." Said the chef, leaving out the fact that the man had just paid him a large amount of money to do this errand, and then he handed her an enormous bottle of high grade sake and a small red box tied shut with a thin, black silk ribbon.

The bottle had a small card tied on with the same black ribbon, which said simply, "For your parent and your nuisance." In some of the worst kanji she had ever seen.

She set that in her bag and started working on the knot in the boxes ribbon while she walked down the street. She knew she had lost the man in his ploy to distract her, but she resolved to take a shortcut to reach her home before the older man could.

She had finally taken a pocket knife to the ribbon and she hurriedly opened the box to discover a neatly folded note resting on top of a small mound of silk that took up most of the box, when she opened the note it was more of the hastily scrawled kanji, saying, "For your expenses and leisure." And taped to the other side of the note was a foreign check made out to Kasumi for the equivalent to five million Yen in American currency, down to the penny, Nabiki noted, before she passed out with a shocked smile plastered on her face. The check remained in a death grip that she wouldn't relinquish until she woke up an hour later in the hospital, deposited there by her lackey that she paid to make sure nothing happened to her.

(S)

The same man arrived at his hotel, a shabby thing that happened to be the only hotel that managed to stay serviceable after Ranma came to town. He contacted his associates to assure them that he had arrived safely, and then dropped his sushi into the mini-fridge, opened his briefcase and laid out his plans on the small coffee table to go over everything one more time before zero hour tomorrow.

(S)

Meanwhile, Nabiki had been quite shocked arriving home that night, she had first gone straight to Ranma's room to pump him for information, but found him already asleep, knocked out by a particularly hard malleting and then tucked into bed by Kasumi. She then went downstairs and asked Kasumi if anyone had come looking for Ranma.

"Kasumi, did anyone odd come to the door today?" Nabiki asked as she absentmindedly put away the sake.

"Well I don't think so." Kasumi replied from the kitchen, "It has been pretty quiet today, and we didn't get a speck of mail, not even a bill. Isn't that odd?"

"Really? That is odd, maybe there was a problem down at the post office again." Nabiki mused, remembering the time Ranma tried to mail P-chan to Antarctica. When Ryouga managed to find some coffee to dunk into he ran, naked, through the post office, smashing everything in sight.

"Well, if Ranma wakes up tonight, tell him I need to talk to him, okay Kasumi? By the way, where's Akane?" Nabiki asked.

"She went out for a jog, but she should have been back by now. Why don't you check the dojo, and if she's there tell her that dinner will be ready in a half hour and remind her it's her turn to set the table." Kasumi told her.

"Thanks sis." Nabiki replied hurriedly on her way out the door.

(S)

Nabiki entered the dojo to find it empty, but she didn't have to wait long before Akane ran into her at a full tilt, dressed in a yellow gi and with a towel around her neck, the expression on her face told Nabiki, when she raised herself off the ground, that Ranma must have really done something bad this time to get her sister this angry.

That expression immediately changed from anger to guilt as Akjane saw what she had done to her sister.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry Nabiki, here, let me help you up" said the chagrined sibling.

Nabiki had a smile that put a Cheshire cat to shame, "Don't worry about it little sister." She said in a sugary sweet tone custom made to raise your chances of diabetes, "I'll just add my dry cleaning bill to your tab. Now, what did Ranma do this time? I find it hard to believe you've put up with him this long."

"Oh Nabiki, I knew you would understand. First he wouldn't eat the Bento I made him, and then he started flirting with those hussies and wouldn't stop, and then Kuno attacked him, and he started picking on Ryouga and, and…" Akane ranting broke down into an unintelligible babble as she sunk to the floor and cried into Nabiki's shirt.

"Its okay sis, I'll double his tab tonight to make up for it all. Nobody gets away with making my sister cry." Nabiki continued to comfort and encourage her sister's actions. After all, people are more easily manipulated when they are emotional, especially when they think you're on their side. Besides, any reason to double Ranma's tab is a good reason.

(S)

The portly man sat on the edge of his bed, hunched low over his maps, charts, and plans in general and smiled, tomorrow certainly would be eventful. He always did long for excitement.


	2. The fight

Ranma no Kagakusha.

I do not own Ranma one half.

Well apparently I didn't explain myself very well. Or you all hate me. On with the story that no one bothered to review!

(S)

'Ranma looks really anxious this morning' Akane noticed. She had completely forgotten about yesterday's incident, but had stored away the emotions it caused in case Ranma did anything else "perverted"

"Ranma, is anything wrong?" Kasumi asked, provoking Soun to glance at the table, both in curiosity and amazement at Kasumi being this perceptive. When he saw Ranma he could recognize Kasumi's worry, Ranma was past sweating bullets and fast approaching muttering to inanimate objects in a dark corner. When Soun looked closer he saw Ranma clutching a small piece of paper in his left hand.

"What do you have there son?" Soun asked, walking over to Ranma and pointing at the offending hand.

Ranma jumped, high, not even noticing Soun until he had pointed at him, Ranma yelled, clearly unable to control the volume of his voice, "No! You can't know about it! Something bad will happen!"

Ranma hit the ceiling and fell. When he righted himself he apologized profusely to it and bolted out the front entranceway.

This had taken all of twenty seconds. The Tendo family stood/sat in shock while Genma, in panda form, ambled downstairs, just waking up after shaking his hangover.

-What's everyone staring at?- The sign read. It's a pity no one was facing Genma, or it might have snapped them out of it. As such, it took him several minutes to rouse them and several more to get what happened out of them, giving Ranma an enormous lead on them. That, combined with the fact that no one except Nabiki, who was still asleep, knew where Ranma might be, forced them to just sit and wait until either Ranma came back, or Nabiki awoke.

(S)

Ranma had calmed down significantly now that he was away from everyone he knew. He glanced down at the source of his woe, a small piece of card with badly scrawled kanji all over it, reminiscent of one of Genma's panda signs. It read -Meet me at the park closest to Furinkan on this date. -Under that was today's date. And on the back there was more -If you tell anyone before we meet, something bad might happen.-

Ranma had gotten this letter three months ago in the mail. At first it was nothing, just another challenge from another rival. He trained a bit more than usual in the following weeks but didn't think much of it; and then jusendo happened. Akane almost dying put a lot of thoughts into his head; this new challenger could be out to kill one of his friends. The very thought gave him nightmares. He guarded the letter so closely even Nabiki didn't have a clue about it, and he tried his best to act normally so that his odd behavior didn't give him away. But the night before, he had had a particularly bad dream, a mix of his neko-ken dreams and the ones of jusendo, except instead of Saffron, a formless shadow held Akane captive, standing tall over a rocky field, splattered with blood and littered with the eviscerated corpses of Ranma's rivals and friends, family and fiancées.

Adding to Ranma's nervousness was the fact that when he awoke from his mallet induced slumber yesterday evening, Nabiki started questioning him, asking if he had seen anyone strange, or if anyone had approached him lately. When he asked her why she wanted to know she told him it was none of his business and pressed him for more answers.

Ranma shook these thoughts out of his head and realized he was approaching the park where he was to meet his new foe. He stopped and steeled himself, preparing for the worst, and then ran in through the main path.

(S)

The man he was to meet was sitting on a bench in the exact center of the same park; eating the remnants of the sushi he had purchased yesterday, an identical meal sitting beside him. The park was rarely ever used because of its proximity to the high school, even in the summer when no one attended the dreaded building. He heard someone heading in his direction at an amazingly fast clip, and when he looked it was the very boy he had come here to see.

"Ranma! How good it is to finally meet you…?" he said, finishing with apparent confusion as Ranma slipped into a very serious looking offensive stance.

He slipped two fingers of his right hand into his sleeve to grasp a carefully concealed pull string. When Ranma leapt into action with blurring speed he tugged on the string and the weights he had attached to him fell to the ground, emitting a blinding flash and a cloud of smoke from hidden vents in the sides when they hit the ground. This gave the man, who was significantly lighter on his feet without the weights attached to him, ample opportunity to escape Ranma's initial attack.

While Ranma recovered from his surprise and waited for the smoke to clear his opponent called out to him.

"Is that the way you greet a stranger? If I didn't know any better I would think you were trying to kill me."

"Maybe I am." Ranma snapped before he realized what he was saying.

"So ready to take another's life are we? Are you prepared for the consequences?" the man asked.

This gave Ranma some pause as he wondered what the man was talking about, "Are you?" he answered.

"When did I say I was planning on killing somebody? Has someone been spreading lies about me? It wouldn't be the first time." The man laughed at his own joke, obviously reminiscing about a long ago time.

"I don't even know you, I got this letter awhile ago telling me to be here today, and then you address me. Explain that!" Ranma said heatedly as he tossed the note to the man, adrenaline rushing through him after the aborted battle.

"Well the letter was mine but, from the sounds of it, it wasn't that side of the letter that upset you. Maybe I should be a bit clearer next time, for the sake of my good health." Again the man laughed a hearty, but strangely childlike, laugh and threw the note back to Ranma.

"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked while catching the note, thoroughly confused by now.

"Well, the other side of the note said 'don't tell anyone or something bad will happen' am I right?" he continued at Ranma's nod, "the bad thing would have been that I mightn't have gotten to meet with you. Now, can you tell me how that translated into me wanting to kill you? Or anyone for that matter."

"Well… earlier this year, after you sent this note, one of my friends was kidnapped and almost killed to get to me…" Ranma was about to say more when the man silenced him with a hand.

"And the 'something bad will happen' took on a deadly new meaning, right?" the man finished for him with a concerned look on his face.

Ranma, by now feeling strangely endeared to the man, nodded slightly, and was amazed when the man reached over and squeezed his shoulder like one would to a distraught family member.

"I'm terribly sorry Ranma, for making you worry so much. I'm so very terribly sorry." The man let him go, feeling him stiffen, a sure sign he wasn't used to such caring treatment, "Now that we have that cleared up, allow me to introduce myself, I am Nathan Lesley, and I am extremely pleased to meet a martial artist of your caliber." Nathan held out his hand.

Ranma snapped out of his shock in time to respond, "Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome branch of the Anything Goes style of martial arts." Ranma bowed and then looked at the hand wonderingly.

Nathan realized his mistake and withdrew his hand while bowing formally, "I'm sorry, it's just a custom from where I come from to shake hands."

"How does it work?" Ranma inquired.

"Oh it's rather simple really, stick out your hand." Ranma complied and the man clasped hands with him, "Then, both people steadily move their hands up and down, about three inches each way." He said as he went through the movements.

"Odd." Ranma noted.

"People everywhere have extremely different customs, I know quite a few people who think bowing is odd, too formal, and takes too much time." Nathan explained, "Bowing is good when you are required to be formal, handshakes are for relaxed encounters. I'll tell you something else, when people don't particularily like each other, but want to look like they do, they will give a special kind of handshake, where they grip with all of their strength to test the others mettle. Like this" he took Ranma's hand again and started squeezing, Ranma's eyes opened wide in surprise at the strength he felt, nowhere near his own, but past his fathers.

"Wow, you could probably beat my pops in a sparring match." Ranma exclaimed.

Nathan snorted, "Doubtful, I don't practice the art at all. I might be stronger than him, but he can undoubtedly do things that are impossible for me." Ranma nodded at the wisdom in that statement.

"But how did you get that strong if you didn't practice the art?" Ranma asked.

Nathan waved to the collection of weights, unnoticed since their impromptu fight, "Each of those have been attached to me for a long time, and before that I had weights ten pounds lighter than that, and before them, ones even lighter than that, I have been weight training since I was eighteen, starting with four five pound weights, one on each wrist and ankle. I just went around all day, every day with them on until I didn't notice them anymore, and then I increased the weight. Right now, each of those fifty weights weighs two pounds, adding one hundred pounds to my overall weight. I have another set that I sleep in that weigh one hundred and fifty pounds; since I do less exercise I can take more weight in my sleep."

Ranma marveled at the concept, "What about that flash, and the smoke cloud?"

"A bit of protection, if someone tries to rob me or kill me, I release the weights with a string in either of my sleeves, and the weights release a bright flash and a bit of harmless smoke and I subdue the culprit. That's assuming he doesn't kill me another way, like a gun or poison." Nathan explained.

"Wow, does it work?" Ranma asked quickly.

"Well before you no one has ever seriously tried to kill me, they were too afraid of the consequences I guess. And since it worked on you I would call it a success." Nathan slapped Ranma on the back and chuckled. At first Ranma felt guilty, but the laughter soon turned infectious and Ranma had to sit down and catch his breath.

"Look at the time, I guess I don't have time to explain why I'm here today, but if you wouldn't mind, I will take you up on the offer of sparring with your father. I might not be able to beat him, but it will be fun to try." Nathan chuckled at the worried look on Ranma's face, "Come on my boy, I know where to go."

(S)

Ranma was still worried for his knew friend, they had split up about a block away from the Tendo Dojo, Nathan saying something about making an entrance. He walked slowly, pondering what would happen, and how he could keep this stranger from being severely hurt.

He arrived only three minutes before Nathan, and before anyone knew he was there he heard the challenge bell at the back of the compound being rung. He resisted the urge to go answer it, assuming this was the "entrance".

So he walked around to the back, standing near the koi pond and marveling at the strangest thing he had seen since the phoenix people. There was Nathan, which Ranma had begun to think of as a respectable gentleman, dressed in an absolutely filthy gi, stumbling around with a bottle of sake in one hand, and a long pipe in the other. He was singing off key, in what sounded like an Irish bar tune. Everyone else in the family was standing there gawking.

Nathan's voice rumbled with phlegm and warm sake as he tried to form coherent speech, "Genma Shlaotome! I challenche yoush fur yur titlesh!"

Genma immediately puffed up, ready to teach the drunkard a thing or two, "Very well, but better people than you have tried to take my title as master of anything goes." A lie, but it sounded impressive, and Genma knew from experience that when you're drunk you'll believe damn near anything.

"No, not that title! I challenche you fur tha titles ofsh tha fattesht mans in Nerimia!" Nathan laughed uproariously, which soon descended into a coughing fit, spraying mucus all over the ground, all the way up to Genma's feet.

Genma snarled and leapt to attack the obviously drunken man in what he thought would be an easy victory, but his flying leap took him right into the wall as the man swayed woozily to the right.

Genma reversed his momentum, bouncing off the wall and back into the man, preparing to hit him with a haymaker, the man, however, intercepted him with a sloppy hug. Genma was standing there in shock, supporting Nathan who was trying not to fall over.

Genma regained his senses enough to push his opponent to the ground, where he lay down splayed out and didn't bother to get back up. Genma then jumped high into the air and attempted to crush Nathan's skull with both his feet.

Genma hit the ground, kicking up a great cloud of dust. When the dust cleared, it revealed Genma standing, both feet stuck up to his ankles in dirt, next to a snoring Nathan, curled up into a loose fetal position.

Genma bent down, not bothering to remove his feet from the ground, and cocked his fist back to end this sham of a fight, when Nathan opened his eyes, stretched out and yawned.

"Jeesh, ish it time fur brekist arredy?" Nathan looked up at Genma, staring at his fist, "Shay, thanksh buddy." And then he grabbed Genma's wrist and hoisted himself up, at the same time pulling Genma down into the dirt.

"Mmm, I lovesh sake!" Nathan said, taking a big swig straight from the bottle, "Shay buddy, would ya like shome of me shake? Fur helpin me up I meansh." Nathan tossed him the bottle, from which Genma took an equally large swig, and then spewed it all over the ground.

"Bleargh, that is the worst tasting sake I've ever drank." Genma drew back his arm, and whipped the sake at the ground, the man dove for it but it smashed to pieces before he could reach it.

He simply stood back up and took another bottle from his gi, "Wells I likes it!" and he took another swig. Then holding his pipe up, he saw it had gone out and fumbled for his matchbook, when he finally struck a match and held it to the bowl of his pipe. All this time he was taking small, slow, imperceptible steps towards Genma. When the match reached the bowl he was about five feet from him, and suddenly the pipe dropped from his mouth and he blew the concealed mouthful of sake onto the tip of the match in a thin stream, turning it into a gout of flame that sent a now seared Genma running for cover.

Everyone else watched in amazement as the man's face took on a hardened look. Everyone except Ranma that is, who had figured out his friends game a long time ago and had just burst out in barely concealed laughter, rolling along the ground in imitation of his father, who was still trying to beat the flames off.

Nathan looked at Ranma and let out a booming laugh then turned back to Genma and watched as the charred man stood up glaring at him.

"Good show Genma, good show. Now lets get on to my challenge shall we?" Nathan asked, puzzling Genma out of his rage.

"What do you mean, and weren't you drunk just a second ago?" Genma growled out.

"It was an act; people have a hard time hitting you if they don't take you seriously enough." Nathan guffawed, "Now, my challenge to you was, "Who is the fattest man in Nerima?" how do you propose we settle that with a martial artist duel? I mean, me beating you, or you beating me in a battle would hardly prove which one of us is the fattest. So, how much do you weigh Genma?"

"Three hundred and twenty seven pounds!" Genma yelled out, proud in spite of himself.

"Well I guess you win then, I'm only two hundred ninety six. Goodbye!" Nathan yelled as he showed himself out.

"What was all that about dad?" Akane asked Soun, Genma was in no mood to answer questions as he was just coming to terms with the fact that this man had just proven that he was grossly overweight, especially for a martial artist.

"That man appears to be a master of drunken boxing, one of the only martial arts with more underhanded tricks than the master. I would bet he was here to prove his worth here today." Soun nodded sagely, and then adopted a goofy grin and waved to his moody friend, "Saotome, come inside, let's resume our game of shogi and celebrate! Kasumi, can you bring us the sake? Make it the finest bottle!"

"Yes father." Kasumi rushed inside, both to get the bottle and tend her forgotten dinner.

'Something to prove?' Ranma thought as he looked down at the card in his hand. The writing on it had changed, it now said. - If you would like to know more. Meet me again Tomorrow. -

(S)

There, are you happy now? No, probably not. Oh well, I'll continue to write anyway. Next chapter you will get to see why he is here. It would have been this one but I'm far too lazy.


	3. The reasons

Ranma no Kagakusha.

Rumiko Takahashi owns Ranma one half.

Well the number of reviews I got wasn't very encouraging, but at least all of them were well thought out. My promise to you is that if you deliver me a good review, I'll private message you back with either an answer to your question or my opinion on what you said. Nathan's goals will become clear in this chapter.

(S)

Ranma arrived early the next day, eager to learn what the strange man he had met yesterday wanted to see him for. It was far earlier than the first time he had seen him since Ranma had to sneak out before everyone woke up. He had heard Kasumi entering the kitchen just as he left but he was sure she hadn't noticed him.

Ranma had just started to run through his advanced katas when he felt Nathans presence heading towards him through the main entrance of the park. He wound down almost immediately, thinking back to the night before.

(S)

Nabiki siddled over to Ranma, her usual grin displaced by a disgruntled frown that she had worn ever since the night before when she couldn't get any answers from him about Nathan, it was easy to keep quiet since Ranma didn't know anything about him at that point.

"Ranma," Nabiki practically growled out, "I want to know who that man that just defeated your father is, now."

Ranma gulped, but steeled himself and brought his thoughts around to the advice Nathan gave him on the way to the Tendo's

'Ranma, if anyone asks you to do something that you really don't want to do, ask them for something that you know is equally repulsive in return.' Ranma remembered the way that the old man seemed to talk more to himself than anyone else, often looking like he was reminiscing while he doled out more and more advice that, while it didn't seem to make any sense, Ranma instinctively knew it would work.

Ranma looked up from what he was doing and stared into Nabiki's eyes, "Ten thousand yen." He mumbled, smirking the entire time at Nabiki's shocked expression.

It didn't last; her shock soon broke as she hit the floor laughing. She managed to catch her breath, but didn't bother getting up as she addressed him, "Saotome, you're in no position to be asking for money, especially since your debt just doubled recently." She swore as she realized what she had just revealed to him, hoping he wouldn't catch on.

Her hopes were dashed, "How exactly did that happen?" Ranma asked slowly.

He watched as Nabiki started stuttering out a reply, Nathan's advice came to him once more, 'If someone starts stuttering, it usually means they are stalling for time to come up with a lie."

"Well… when your friends broke up the dojo during the wedding it added to your bill, and there were a lot of damages." Nabiki regained her composure during the sentence, sounding completely sure of herself by the end.

"But wasn't it you who invited them to the wedding? Wouldn't that make them your responsibility?" Ranma thought out loud, not trying to incriminate Nabiki, just voicing his confusion.

Nabiki visibly paled at that, "Ummm, never mind Saotome." And she walked off, trying to seem like the whole event never happened. She was still mad, but in a situation like this it was better to leave with your dignity in tact. She got to her room before she realized that Ranma had just gotten the better of her. She would never hear the end of this.

(S)

Ranma had just finished his cool down and patiently waited for Nathan to catch up to him.

"Ranma! Good timing my boy, good timing. After yesterday I didn't expect you for several hours yet. I just got here myself." Nathan panted as he ground to a halt.

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.

"Well I had waited here yesterday for hours yesterday; I didn't know when you would come so I got up early and headed here as soon as I could." Nathan described.

"Oh, by the way, did you do something to my dad in your fight? The old lout won't go near sake since you gave him some of yours." Ranma stifled a small chuckle as he thought back to the first time in history that Genma Saotome had ever refused sake.

(S)

"Saotome, come inside, let's resume our game of shogi and celebrate! Kasumi, can you bring us the sake? Make it the finest bottle!" Soun ran inside, determined to switch the board back to his favor before his friend could shake himself out of his stupor.

Genma rushed in as soon as he heard sake mentioned, he really needed something to wash out his mouth after swallowing some of that strange mans swill.

"Here you are father." Kasumi bowed submissively, holding out the bottle of sake Nathan had given Nabiki two days ago.

Soun looked questioningly at the bottle, "Saotome, did you buy this? I don't remember seeing it before."

"It wasn't me Tendo, I can't afford that kind of sake." Genma appraised the bottle behind his glasses.

"I believe Nabiki brought it home." Kasumi supplied as she hurried back to the kitchen.

"Remind me to thank her latter. Well Saotome? Let's commence the celebrations!" Soun cried as he poured them both a generous helping and setting down the bottle with a sweeping motion that knocked one of Genma's tiles off the board, ensuring that it would stay out of play until his soon to be drunk friend noticed it was missing.

"Cheers!" Genma and Soun exclaimed in unison, clashing their glasses together and downing their contents in a single gulp.

Soun immediately developed a content, look on his face, while Genma had apparently decided to skip content and move straight to ill. Soun didn't notice his friend's volatile state as he bellowed out, "Thank the kami Saotome, this is the best sake I've ever had!" he looked more closely at his friend when Genma started gagging, and therefore managed to get out of the way when his friend lost his lunch all over the shogi table.

(S)

"… and he tried again with two more kinds of sake before he just gave up and asked Kasumi for some tea. He hasn't touched the stuff since." Ranma finished.

Nathan, instead of looking amused at Ranma's story, let out a long tired sigh and motioned Ranma to sit next to him on the bench. He took awhile to compose himself before he could speak.

"Ranma, when I was arranging to meet you some of my associates told me things I didn't want to know. It goes against my moral code, my code of honor to know things about potential allies that know nothing about me. They told me only two things before I reminded them of my opinions on that. One was that your father is a known criminal and alcoholic, and the other was about the middle Tendo's habit of blackmail and extortion. When your father attempted to kill me yesterday I took a measure of revenge on him. You see, I abhor alcohol because of what it does to people, they become addicted and it becomes their crutch. When I offered Genma that sake during our battle it contained something of my own design. A chemical that, when mixed, would cause someone to vomit violently when they consumed liquor of a certain alcohol percentage." Nathan stopped his rather long winded speech when he saw Ranma gazing at him questioningly.

"Ummm when mixed with what?" Ranma asked, musing over what Nathan had just said, 'A friend… that doesn't know about the curse… that won't be scared off…"

"Another chemical I made, when I entered the city Nabiki Tendo approached me and I gave her a bottle of fine sake, saying it was for her father and Genma. The second chemical is tasteless, and they are both harmless unless mixed together, but if someone ingests both then they can't drink liquor for over a month. I'm sorry Ranma." Nathan concluded, looking down at the ground, alike to a young boy ashamed of himself for what he's done.

"Why are you sorry? Genma not drinking for a month means no more loud complaints about hangovers, or drunken plans that end up causing trouble. If I had of known you sooner then the neko-ken wouldn't have happened." Ranma laughed, trying to break his friend's bad mood.

"Did you say neko-ken? That thrice damned technique still exists?" Nathan peered at Ranma, his sorrow forgotten in favor of rage, he started again in a much calmer voice, "Say cat for me Ranma." Ranma's wince at the word cat didn't go unnoticed.

"Ca… cuh ca cu cu caaaa cat." Ranma finally got the relatively simple word out of his mouth, trying to suppress the shudders it brought on.

Nathans face lit up, "Good job my boy! I've only ever met one other victim of that technique and he fainted at the mere mention of the word. And Ranma, the reason I apologized was because I have just taken out your father's only crutch in a very violent manner, the next month will be rough on him. But, after seeing what he put his own son through I'm almost willing to retract my regrets."

"Now would you like to know why I bothered coming here in the first place?" Nathan continued at Ranma's nod.

"I came because of your abilities Ranma, you are one of the first people in centuries to be able to wield your ki so masterfully at such a young age. As such, I have a proposition for you. I have some ki techniques I would be willing to share with you, since I do not practice the art I can't use them myself, you would have to learn them on your own. I will tell you how it can be done, and you can try it. If not then I will die, taking the knowledge with me to the grave, you are the only hope of these techniques seeing the light of day." Nathan finished his stirring speech, staring bravely into Ranma's eyes.

Ranma was sold the moment he heard he was getting some new moves, and everything else Nathan said just added on to it. Ranma would finally have his own techniques, and by the way Nathan said it, they were extremely powerful, "I'll do it, but if you don't mind my asking, what will you get out of it…" Ranma trailed off as he heard a faint rustling in the bushes behind his knew sensei, "Look out!" He yelled.

Even as his father, who must have followed Ranma to the park, jumped Nathan, the seemingly unaware man took his hands out of his pockets, Ranma noticed he was wearing gloves that weren't there before, they were mostly metallic, but the joints where the knuckles were was made out of an unidentifiable substance that reminded Ranma of rubber. Around the wrists of the gloves was a ring of spikes. Nathan turned towards Genma and grabbed him around the arm the overweight martial artist had attempted to strike him with. Genma yelped and dropped to the ground, his hair standing on end and his wrist smoking slightly.

"These are gloves I have been working on for quite some time; they collect ambient static electricity and store it in the spikes here." Nathan explained, sounding like he was talking about the weather, "I can use them to stun people by touch, or send small cords of lightning at them over a distance, and at full charge they can even generate plasma."

"What's that?" Ranma asked, staring at his comatose father.

"Plasma is the least well known form of matter; the other three are solids liquids and gases. Like earth water and air. If you heat a solid enough it turns into a liquid, then into a gas, then into plasma. A plasma is like a ball of lightning, but is really just a lot of particles that have a lot of energy. Here, watch and learn." Nathan put both gloves together at arms length in front of him, fingers splayed. He then moved his palms apart but kept his fingers touching each other, and before Ranma's eyes a small ball of light formed, dancing in the air between Nathan's hands, occasionally shooting off random arcs of electricity only to nullify against an invisible force field.

"What's keeping it from shocking you?" Ranma asked.

"Electro magnets that activate when I start making the plasma. You know Ranma, with a lot of training and one of the techniques I know, you could do this with your ki. Except a lot larger, the ball in my hands now could power an efficient home for a year; with your amount of ki you could power Tokyo for the same amount of time." Nathan forced his hands back together, dispelling the dancing globe of pure energy.

"Ah, Mr. Saotome, I believe you wanted to 'discuss' something with me?" Nathan addressed Genma as he groggily got to his feet.

"You will not subvert my son!" Genma coiled himself in preparation for another attack but paled as Nathan readied another plasma ball and prepared to hurl it at Genma.

"Are you sure you want to be hit with the full force of a lightning bolt at point blank range? It takes much less current than this to stop the heart. In fact it takes about half this to flash fry you." Nathan tensed himself and sneered more menacingly than Ranma would have expected from him.

Genma stood up straight and didn't make a move. He had seen lightning before and knew it was useless to run. Electricity tended to go for the closest thing to it, and Genma happened to be just that.

Nathan dispelled the force of nature but kept his hands clasped in preparation, "Mr. Saotome, your son has agreed to become my student and learn some personalized techniques. And after all I've done for your family I would have thought you could show a bit more gratitude."

"What do you mean?" Genma grumbled suspiciously.

"You don't know?" he continued at Genma's negative response, "Well a few days ago I met a Miss Nabiki Tendo, and since I knew you lived at her residence I gave her some money to help out. Hold on. "Nathan pulled out a tally book "Ah yes, it was fifty thousand dollars, or roughly five million in yen." And he smirked as Genma's eyes widened and Ranma's jaw dropped. He could practically see the conclusions forming in their heads. Money grubbing teenager is given a large amount of money from a stranger for her family, what would she do? What else.

Nathan laughed heartily as Genma sped of back to the Tendo household.

"Nathan, was any of that true?" Ranma asked.

"Enough of it that Nabiki is going to be in one heap of trouble by the time you get back." Nathan managed to get out between gasps.

"So what about those techniques?" Ranma asked, his eagerness shining through.

"Well, what can you do already?" Nathan asked, sitting back down on the forgotten bench.

"Hn?" Ranma asked unintelligibly.

"Lets run through a checklist. Aura manifestation?" nod, "basic ki missile?" nod, "physical enhancement?" nod.

"Alright, now what are your special techniques? Keep in mind, I've probably never seen them before, so try to explain them each a bit." Nathan squirmed a bit to get comfortable, and then motioned for Ranma to demonstrate.

"Well there's the mouko takabisha, I make a ball of ki in my hands and infuse it with my confidence. Then theres the hiryo shouten ha, it involves makin my opponent real angry and then gettin really calm, then I lead them in a spiral and hit them with an uppercut, the cold ki I make and the hot ki they make, plus the spiral, sends them into a tornado. And the last one I can think of is the kachu tenshin amaguriken. I pump ki into my arms so they can go faster. With it I can hit something 50 times a second." Ranma demonstrated each one as he went, wrecking two trees as he went, one was fried and the other pummeled to death.

"That's perfect; it seems you have all of the right abilities to learn what I have to teach. I was sure I would never find a martial artist of your caliber in time to pass on this knowledge." Nathan clapped his hands together and put the special gloves in his pocket, then stands and begins to walk.

"I have a question. Why do you keep talkin like your gonna die soon? I mean you may be old but you're not on death's door or anything."

Nathan half turned his head and looked back at Ranma from the corner of his eye, "How old do you think I am Ranma?"

"I dunno, you look about as old as my pop. I'd say fifty?" Ranma was getting nervous because of the way Nathan was looking at him.

Nathan laughed, but it was unlike any laugh Ranma had ever heard from the seemingly middle aged man. It was bitter and regretful and more like a sob for every second it went on. It conveyed every negative emotion that a laugh shouldn't represent and Ranma already hated it more than he did Kodachi's psychotic shrieks.

"Ranma, I could only wish to live until I'm fifty. Awhile back my career was in politics, a very stressful line of work. It turned my hair grey from lack of sleep and gave me wrinkles from the constant frowning. I'm thirty six, and every doctor I've seen doubts I'll live another year." Nathan continued to laugh, almost sounding hysterical, the transformation in his personality was so abrupt that Ranma could only stand there, shocked, as his new sensei broke down, "Since my early twenties I've had a mutant form of lung cancer, it's completely dormant now, but research on it told the specialists that if they tried any conventional form of treatment it would awaken and kill me within a month. The government gave me a large settlement to keep quiet about it so as not to cause a panic. So I decided to do something fun with the money, these techniques are completely experimental. I don't know if they will work, but if they do I know how. I came to you for the chance to observe the last, unexplored, form of energy. Ki."

Nathan collapsed on the bench, panting, still chuckling in the most unnerving way possible.

Ranma didn't know what to say, it was a lot of information to process at once. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but was stopped.

"Just go home Ranma, you need some time to think. And I need to recover my wits. If you do agree to help me then, when I die, my money will become yours. Thirty million dollars, enough to live off of for generations on end. Go home and get some rest." Nathan stumbled out of the park. His laughter was gone, replaced with a morbid smile.

(S)

Damn this was hard to write. I hope you managed to read it all the way through though because the end was what I'm really proud of. The techniques will be revealed in the next chapter, and now that I have some free time it will be posted much sooner than this one. If any of you were going to review just to say that Ranma couldn't possibly understand Nathan because of the difference in intelligence, consider this. I don't know the french language, I can't speak french, but, I can understand enough of it to know what someone is saying to me in french. Ranma is simply figuring out what the words he doesn't know mean by using the context of the conversation and the words he does know. If none of you were thinking about this then you should have been for the sake of your intelligence.


	4. The first technique

Ranma no Kagakusha.

I own nothing but my waning pride.

I liked your reviews, and promised at least one of you I would update by the end of this week. Here's the chapter.

(S)

Ranma was walking downstairs to the living room after an uneasy nights sleep. His father had gone out all night to try and drink himself silly and get rid of his current "allergy" to sake and had been submitted to the hospital since the bartender thought he had gotten alcohol poisoning. And since it was the summer holidays Akane had no reason to wake him up with a bucket of water so he had a rare chance to wake up under his own power. He just hoped Kasumi had saved him some breakfast since he was up far later than the rest of the house would be.

His thoughts returned to yesterday's meeting with Nathan and he shivered violently. The first friend, or even teacher, who didn't have an ulterior motive, and he was going to die, quite possibly before Ranma could learn anything from him. More than learning new moves, Ranma just wanted this new player to hang around longer. The man acted like the father he thought Genma might have been if he wasn't drunk all the time.

His mind wandered all over the events of the past few days. Nathan had taught him how to stump Nabiki, had beaten his father by acting drunk, and offered to help Ranma in just about every way possible, and this guy didn't even know Ranma yet. Ranma probably knew more about Nathan than the reverse.

Ranma caught himself laughing as he thought about exactly what mess Nathan had gotten Nabiki into with a few well placed words. Nabiki had apparently ripped up the check, thinking it was bogus. When Ranma confirmed it's authenticity, Nabiki ignored the fathers' yelling and proceeded to hit her head against the floor for two hours straight, not noticing when Ranma put a pillow under her head five minutes into it. Nabiki had forgotten a very important rule. In Nerima, if you didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, it tended to bite.

Ranma seated himself at the table after getting some leftovers from the fridge. Nabiki appeared behind him, a small bandage on her head proved that if you hit your head against anything for two hours it's bound to do some damage.

"Ranma, who gave me that check?" Nabiki's eyes narrowed dangerously, she was in no mood to play today.

Ranma would've gulped if he hadn't been employing the soul of ice since the moment he had felt Nabiki's presence. His mind raced as he tried to come up with something that wouldn't endanger Nathan's ability to meet him.

"He's my new sensei." Ranma replied truthfully, hoping against hope she would stop there.

Nabiki was still too sleepy to pry for a name. "Then your meeting him today, right?"

Ranma nodded absently. He knew his mistake before the gleam made it into Nabiki's eyes.

"Good, I'll be joining you then." Nabiki said in a tone that broached no argument. Ranma just sighed and wondered how he would explain this.

(S)

Ranma and Nabiki walked slowly up the same main path Ranma had walked these past two days, Ranma all the while looking around worriedly. He cast half glances at Nabiki to make sure she wasn't going to do anything drastic.

Ranma spied Nathan slowly approaching them with an unexpected smile on his face. This was a far cry from the weak, depressed Nathan of yesterday, or even the happy, amusing, Nathan of the day before. His smile was cold and calculating, it reminded Ranma of Nabiki at her best. In fact it made the Ice queen look like a half melted slush princess in comparison. Nathan was wearing a black dress suit and came striding purposefully up the road with the aid of a tall, ornately carved walking stick, adorned with a small golden handrest that molded perfectly into his palm. Ranma noticed with shock that he was wearing his special gloves.

"Nabiki Tendo, well I can't say I didn't expect you to be here." Nathan said, apparently bored at waiting. Ranma's eyes widened at that, this was another new side of Nathan, and Ranma was starting to doubt how much he really knew.

"And you must be the bastard that's been messing with my family for the past two days." Nabiki said with a lot less emotion than humanly possible.

"You know too much for someone your age, you must be horribly unhappy, or a terribly cruel person." Nathan laughed a cruel laugh to mimic his cruel face.

"Why do you say that?" Nabiki asked coolly.

"Your spiteful sarcasm and suspicious disposition might have told me a few things. Why don't you tell me how your mother died?" Nathan's eyes narrowed as a large crack ran through Nabiki's cool façade, she now seethed with anger, and suddenly ran forward to strike the older man.

Nathan twisted the wrist of the hand that held the cane and a loud click emanated from the joint that separated wood and metal. His arm rose sharply, leaving the cane on the ground and revealing a two and a half foot long blade that had been concealed within. Nabiki slowed at that but what stopped her in her tracks was when electricity crackled around Nathan's hand and the gleaming surface of the short sword caught fire.

"I really wouldn't attack someone like that Nabiki chan. I don't relly on honour like most people you know. I have a few underhanded tricks and more than one place good enough to dump your body." Nathan sneered, "Maybe I was wrong about you, you are rather dumb after all. By your age I knew when to acknowledge my betters.

Ranma was outright shocked; he didn't know which Nathan was real. He would like to believe that the kind, gentle man he thought he knew was real, but if this struggle was any indication then Nathan could be better than Nabiki at tricking people.

He knew one thing though, Nabiki wouldn't survive this without his help. He jumped in front of her and turned back to see if she was okay, and was greeted with her cocky smirk.

"You may not rely on honor, but Ranma here sure does, and it's in the martial artist's code to protect those weaker than him." Nabiki said while patting him on the shoulder, "You're horribly outmatched."

"Ranma might be stronger than me, but I can probably do some things that are impossible for him to do. I'll kill two birds with one stone here." Nathan said, yawning while putting the sword back into his cane, extinguishing it's blade, smirking at the way Ranma's eyes widened and making a deliberate gesture out of clasping his hands together.

Ranma shot forward, the intent to end this written all over his face. 'I have to stop him before he charges those gloves or we're both dead!' Ranma may have been strong, but he held no illusions about being able to dodge lightning.

Ranma cocked back his fist as he shot along the ground; he was almost within striking distance when he noticed a thick string coiled around Nathan's thumb leading up to his sleeve. Ranma tried to pull back but his momentum was too great. Nathan yanked the string and the weights released, sending a blinding flash and releasing a cloud of smoke. Ranma tumbled through the cloud, landing crouched on his toes, waiting for the glare to clear. Ranma's danger sense screamed at him but it was too late, Nathan hit an instant paralysis point on Ranma side, and for added effect sent a few hundred volts into him. Ranma collapsed just as the smoke cleared.

With his last amount of control before the point took effect, Ranma swiped Nathan's legs out from under him and yelled "Run!" to Nabiki. She took his advice and was off like a rocket.

When Nabiki was out of sight Nathan started laughing, and it was once again the hearty, childish laugh Ranma had grown accustomed to.

"Get up Ranma, your fine." Nathan gasped out, wiping tears from his eyes as all remnants of menace vanished from his voice.

Ranma tested his muscles suspiciously, and found he could move them again; he stood and attempted to compose himself, but failed miserably, "But… What the hell!?"

Nathan only laughed harder at that, "I guess I have some explaining to do eh? Let's do it over lunch." Nathan picked up his cane and started walking, Ranma noticed strings pulling the weights back into Nathan's clothes, and now that they were open, he saw the hidden pouches they were concealed in.

Ranma finally got a hold of himself and appeared directly in front of the confusing old man with speed he thought he wouldn't have to use against anyone but the old ghoul.

"I want to know. Right now." Ranma growled out maliciously.

"Well, since Nabiki will be here with reinforcements soon, I suggest we talk while we walk." Nathan continued around Ranma, motioning for him to follow.

"What if I want them here?" Ranma asked with an edge to his voice.

"Why would you? A) You could take me on your own if you wanted to. B) They'll kill me before you get any answers. And C) I don't want to die yet, so you will be putting them in extreme amounts of danger." Nathan's cool demeanor gave Ranma shivers as he thought of the implied threat.

Ranma conceded and started walking alongside the other man, gesturing for him to start explaining.

"Ranma, Because of my political career I am a mastermind of manipulation, what you saw there was a combination of techniques I've developed. First, I forced Nabiki to attack me without reason, and then I gave her a meaningless threat to fear. Finally, I turned you against me with that threat, while still keeping you confused enough so you wouldn't do any real harm. If there had of been a policeman nearby he would have seen her attack me, me defend myself, and then you attack me. You would have undoubtedly gone to jail for assault and I would be off scot free because I'm a politician from another country, and that grants me diplomatic immunity unless I intentionally violate the law." Nathan said as they approached a small yattai across the street from the park's edges.

"So it was all a lie? But, why?" Ranma had calmed down, now knowing for sure that this new personality was the fake.

"It wasn't all a lie. Remember when I said I would kill two birds with one stone? That was the truth; you just took it the wrong way. I wanted to turn Nabiki against me, since that can be use full later on, and I wanted to teach you your first lesson. A human's emotions are more easily manipulated than anything else in the world; it took less effort for me to make you attack me than it does for you to summon your ki. Do you understand?" Ranma nodded once as they ordered.

"Yeah, it's just like anything goes; if you can get your opponent angry then he'll make more mistakes." Ranma accepted the yakisoba and dug in.

"Good although, I do have an ulterior motive for doing this. I hate people like Nabiki. Extortionists and the like. They make money at other people's expense without offering any real service. And although I loath to admit it, I am much better at what she does than she is. No blackmailer will ever beat a politician at manipulation. I've had to do things for my country that no one should ever be required to do. So, I'm giving Nabiki a taste of her own, bitter, ill affecting, medicine. Want to help?" Nathan rubbed his hands together, smiling darkly, this time though Ranma joined in after nodding his head vigorously.

"Excellent, now, how much money do you owe her?" Nathan asked. Ranma looked down and hesitantly mumbled out a rather large number.

"My my, she is busy. Nathan took out a wallet, paid the cook and counted out a large stack of yen, which he then handed to Ranma into two smaller stacks, one larger than the other.

"Nabiki will have told them everything, so we must be quick. When you get there, deny everything she says, but before they can ask you anything, give the larger stack here to Nabiki, tell her I gave it to you, while holding the other in your other hand. Then get out of there before questions get asked. When you get back I'll be ready to tell you the basics of the first technique." Nathan could almost see the gears turning in Ranma's head. The boy seemed to be getting smarter every day, absorbing all the information like a sponge left in a desert then submitted to rain. Ranma almost knew what Nathan's instructions would do when carried out. This was his first chance in a long while to get back at Nabiki for everything she's done to him. He was slightly worried about paying back the money Nathan just gave him, but this was worth it.

(S)

Ranma arrived at the dojo just as everyone poured out in full battle armour. Akane was in her yellow gi, a practice boken she kept in her room in her hands. Soun in samurai armor waving around a naginata. Genma panda charging his ki so much it was in the visible spectrum, he had ki collected around his hands in what Ranm a realized were vacuum blades, prepped and ready to throw. Ranma was surprised his old man still had the control to hold vacuum blades for so long.

"What's up?" Ranma asked the shocked group, keeping his cool and trying not to laugh at what he was about to do.

"Wha?" was the general consensus. Nabiki heard this and came running out.

"Ranma? But, I saw it, he got you… What happened?" Nabiki asked a bit more eloquently, doing an amazing job at hiding her distress at losing her cash cow.

"What are you talking about Nabiki? I only went to meet my sensei. I'm going back real soon too." Ranma almost flooded excitement at learning his first specialized super technique.

Nabiki was about to respond when she felt a wave of anger and ill intention wash over her from the martial artists behind her, she knew it was a bad idea, but she turned anyways.

"You lied to us…" and the chase was on. All over the back yard, around and in some cases through the koi pond. Nabiki proved that in the right situations, non martial artists are pretty damn fast too.

Ranma let this go on for awhile before phasing out of sight and appearing between the rampaging mob of three and the running trixter, holding the group back with one arm and stopping Nabiki by grabbing the back of her shirt. Everyone struggled for a moment, but stopped. When they did Ranma let go and fished around in his pockets.

"Before I forget." Ranma pulled out the large stacks of cash, "Here ya go Nabiki that should pay off my bill, right?"

Nabiki nodded dumbly as she counted the money, "Where did you get all this?"

"Sensei gave it to me." Ranma's disembodied voice answered her as he fled the area.

(S)

Ranma got back to the clearing in the park where this whole mess began and saw some fairly odd equipment being assembled. There were six framed sets of glass, each set had two panes spaced evenly apart, held in a metal frame with small slots in the bottom, between each set of glass was a layer of colored smoke. All of this was set up on six tripods, each about five feet from the other.

"Ranma, guhd timin muhboy." Nathan mumbled out around a wrench he had stuck between his teeth.

"What's all this got to do with training?" Ranma scratched his head.

"Wull, puhtoo Well this is the first ki technique I've ever taught, I wanted to see if they worked before I brought them to you, so you would have something to start with. I gave it to an old ki master friend of mine, he died shortly afterwards. But he learned it. So I know this one is possible. This smoke you see is lighter than air, so it rises to the top of the panes of glass, and gets trapped there. Then I put in more smoke until it went all the way to the bottom, so that there is a layer of smoke to work with. This will be the first step in your training. But first you need to know what ki is. From my point of view." Nathan got out another contraption, a small clear box, with a little metal pad inside of it; on the pad was a CO2 cylinder. Nathan set this up on a tripod far apart from the rest and walked far away, motioning for Ranma to follow.

"Ki, from a scientific point of view, is the natural energy your body produces to run off of. What you are working with is excess ki that your body produces because of your physical condition. Your body makes more ki than it can use, so you leak it, and then can mold it like you do with aura control and ki missiles. Ki is a unique energy in its stability. I doubt you could control fire as well as you can ki because ki is the most stable form of energy known to man. Martial artists are unique because their training produces two things. Their physical training produces extra ki, and their mental control training allows them to utilize it. Is that clear?" Nathan's voice had moved to a lecturing tone that Ranma was familiar with. It had truly become a teacher student relationship.

Ranma just nodded with a determined mask etched into his face.

"Then we shall start with a demonstration. This exercise is all about control, you need very little ki to actually pull this off, but you need an immense amount of self control. The amount you breathe out naturally should suffice." Ranma was shocked at this, 'Could a technique this advanced need so little ki?' Ranma almost didn't catch Nathan starting to talk again, "The CO2 canister you see there has an immense amount of carbon diokixde in it, it is so compressed that it is actually solid, and that is what you are going to do with your ki. Watch closely." Nathan put on one of the shock gloves and picked up a wire lying on the ground, leading to the metal plate on which the canister was resting. He sent an imperceptible jolt through the wire and the canisters metal surface crackled with energy before there entire clearing was treated to an explosion of sound. Ranma could feel it in his chest more than he could hear it.

"That canister was overfilled with CO2, a real one wouldn't explode with nearly as much force. But the point of the demonstration was to show you the potential of compressed air. You can compress air by pushing it between two layers of ki and then release it with that kind off explosive force. Or, by using a minimal amount of ki, you can harden a layer of air around you to create a permanent shield of solid air, it would be more transluscent than glass and its hardness would depend on how much air you put between the ki. This will come much later, but the first step is the glass." Nathan started towards the odd setup.

"This step took my friend two weeks and thirty panes to complete, you will have six chances, if you can't complete it by then i will give you the next set of glass and you will be expected to set it up yourself." Nathan took out a tarp and layed it behind the five sets of glass. It was an extremely large tarp, and reached all the way to the tree line.

"Now move to the first one on the left." Ranma did as he was told, "Now put these protecive clothes on, you'll need them." Nathan hand Ranma some gloves, a face mask with clear plastic over the eyes and a thin elastic strap to secure it, and an overcoat, all made from the rubber like substance that the joints on Nathan's gloves were made of.

"The material is strong, light, moderately flexible and slash proof. Which means it will protect us from flying glass." Nathan explained while he put on a similar getup.

"Now, flood the first container with your ki." Ranma nodded and manifested two thin streams of ki, one in each hand, and fed them into the slots at the bottom, Nathan eyed him carefully as the smoke moved out of the way and up, trying to find somewhere to go. Ranma kept slowly feeding ki into the container. He was about to ask what to do next when the glass shattered outward, spraying them and the tarp with shards. Most just bounced off of them but some stuck fairly deep into the armour.

"Looks like you failed this time, take those out and let's get started on the next. I might even help this time." Nathan smirked, indicating the glass sticking out of Ranma's body suit. Nathan moved onto the next and started instructing.

(S)

I'm going to end it here so I can keep my head from spinning. If you have any problems with the way I'm writing this just review with your opinions. I may not like them, but I'll always take them into consideration. This chapter turned out darker in the beggining than i would have liked it to be. Oh well, maybe next one will be happy.


End file.
